Prototype Perfection
by DovaRaak
Summary: Alex Mercer is unleashed upon NYC, with he only thing keeping him human, ripped from his arms. Will he succumb to the virus, or control it? PLease read and review :)
1. Chapter 1

Chp. 1 Infection Rate: 0.1%

Alex Mercer shoots up from his metal bed. His torso is covered in blood, with bullets surrounding him. He inspects the room around him, noticing body bags and deformed human corpses everywhere around the room.

"They're all in the morgue sir," Alex heard a distant voice say. From the two swinging doors, a doctor and four armed guards walk in. The four guards don't hesitate, and raise their rifles to Alex's head.

"Doc, I thought you said they were all dead!" screamed one of the armed guards. Instinctively, Alex rose his arms above his head, and from his torso shot out for black tendrils. The tendrils stabbed into the solar plexus of the four guards, and they began firing wildly at Alex.

The guards were dragged into Alex's body, then completely wrapped in black tendrils. Their bones cracked and broke as they were smashed together, than consumed as a whole into Alex's body. As their body's disappeared into Alex's the bullet holes in his chest sealed, and memories from the guards flowed into his head.

_ Alex stood against a wall with a group of doctors. Around him was chaos, malformed humans ran around, scratching and biting at soldiers. He and the doctors were facing a firing squad, and Alex held a syringe with a viscous black liquid. As Alex stabbed the syringe into his heart, the firing squad unleashed hell upon him and the doctors._

"What have you done to me?!" Alex screamed as he jumped from his bed to the doctor. He pushed the doctor against the wall behind him, holding his left forearm to the doctor's throat.

"Whatever happened, you've brought upon yourself. I was only here, to remove the virus you injected into your system," the doctor answered. Alex loosened his grip a bit, and the doctor dropped to his knees.

_What are you doing Mercer? That doctor is going to kill you! You need to get out of there! _A female voice ran through Alex's head. Alex swayed back and forth, feeling power flow through his muscles from the consumed guards. He thought about doing the same to the doctor, learning what he knew.

Alex placed his hands upon the doctor's arms, and lifted him easily form the ground. His eyes met the doctor's, and Alex knew consuming him would be a waste. So, Alex began to pull his arms apart, and the doctor screamed.

The doctor's shoulders gave first, being ripped from their sockets. As Alex pulled, the doctor's body fought to stay together. His tissue gave way, splitting like rubber, his muscles stripped from the bone, and his bones split in two. Alex now held two portions of the doctor's body in both of his hands.

"I could get used to this," Alex said to himself as he left the morgue.

A radio within the morgue began to pick up chatter five minutes later.

"Dr. Koenig, how is the extraction of bio-weapon ZUES?"….."Dr. Koenig"... The radio tuned out for a second, before returning to chatter in a much greater force.

"Attention all Blackwatch soldiers, and GENTEK doctors, codename ZUES is free and upon NYC. Be cautious, and shoot on sight, you will get a picture upon your desktops momentarily."


	2. Chapter 2

*Author's note: Posting will hopefully be once every two weeks, or even less. College and work slightly take up schedule. Any questions, please email or PM me. PM me for email, please R&R. Thanks followers!

Chp. 2 Infection Rate: 2%

Alex sat perched atop one of New York's hundreds of skyscrapers. From atop the building, he could see for miles around him, thanks to the virus. Around the city streets below, Blackwatch soldiers corralled, setting up roadblocks and checkpoints. They explained to the civilians, that it was just a drill, _practice_ per say to not raise a panic. Yet, Alex knew better.

Since he had unleashed the virus into his body, some other virus was also released from GENTEK. Their unconfirmed bioweapon, was now unleashed upon New York City, and boy was it working. Of the 8.4 million bodies weaving in and out of each other, nearly 175,000 humans were infected. The virus decayed their minds, some form of increased dementia, as well as their bodies.

While most just became raging, rampant zombie-like beings, others mutated in worse ways. Some became walking bombs, filled with acidic fluids, while others bodies didn't decay as much, and they were able to do superhuman things. Alex seemed to be the only one to absorb and contain the virus in such a way, that he wasn't _dead_ like the others.

_You need to show Blackwatch that you're not to be messed with. Hunt down those who would use you for their experiments, work your way to free me,_ the female voice echoed in Alex's head. She had come to reveal herself as Elizabeth Greene, another of GENTEK's wondrous minds. She had worked on another form of the virus in Hope, Idaho, before the same thing happened there. She is the sole survivor, and is contained under the highest security inside GENTEK headquarters.

"Who should be one of my first targets Elizabeth? You seem to know more than I, even though you're locked deep in their buildings," Alex questioned. He was very suspicious of her tactics, but she was the only one he could trust for now.

_You hear things while locked in solitude, you took care of Koenig already I heard, and that's great. He created this virus, well, the strand unleashed on your city anyway, which makes one less target._ _I want you to find Raymond McMullen, he is the founder of GENTEK, and has a real interest in the virus._

"The first person I'm going after is the god damn founder of GENTEK?! Are you crazy?!" Alex screamed. A sharp pain surged into his brain, like a hot needle slowly stabbing in.

_He is the founder, yes, but he doesn't believe he is vulnerable. He keeps himself hidden among the main populace in the city. He has a penthouse on the north side of the island, guarded by some of Blackwatch's higher ranked, be careful,_ Elizabeth ended and the searing pain stopped.

After a few hours, Alex had made his way to the north side New York. It didn't take long for him to notice the easy way to find McMullen, just follow the guys in uniform. All the Blackwatch soldiers didn't just follow some random path, they were watching certain roads. The all circled within a three mile radius, careful not to give away McMullen's true position, but Alex had his own way of finding out.

Alex trailed a small group of Blackwatch as they walked into an alley. A group of three, and no one knew he was even there. He overheard them talking about being stuck on this assignment.

"Why are we even here? I mean, McMullen has GENTEK boarded up tighter than the Virgin Mary, and we're patrolling the streets supposedly protecting him? I mean, come on, I know we're militia, but we can't just walk in New York like nothing is really going on," said one soldier.

"He has a point Sarge, I mean, think about it. We're a private military group, funded by GENTEK, and we're out here protecting them, looking like normal military. Don't you think the general populace will get suspicious?" asked another soldier. The last soldier, and obviously leader of the group, turned to answer.

"If giving you free speech is going to lead to mouthing off, I'll revoke it. Now get back to patrol, we have fifteen until shift end," answered the sergeant. The leader returned to facing front, and walked deeper into the alley.

Alex shifted from cover-to-cover, being sure to remain unseen. As he got closer, he started to plan out how to extract the information he needed. The two lower soldiers seemed to know nothing, so the sergeant had to be his target. But the other two were in his way.

_I need to kill them quietly, so that no one else will notice, and need them to keep radio silence. How can I do this? _Alex thought to himself. A quick idea struck him, and he had no choice but to act upon it.

"Hey guys, looking for me?" Alex said, stepping out into the open with his arms up. The soldiers turned, instantly raising their guns.

"Freeze Mercer! WE have the right to use deadly force!" screamed the sergeant. He stepped forward, between his two privates. Alex began to slowly walk toward the trio, keeping his hands above his head,

"Mercer, I said freeze!" the sergeant screamed again. He took his pistol, and jammed it against Alex's temple as he got close enough, and Alex smiled.

"Mistake," Alex whispered. In the blink of the human eye, Alex snapped the sergeant's wrist, twirled him so he faced his private's as a meat shield, his own pistol pointing to them. Alex quickly pulled the trigger, subduing both privates in a matter of seconds, and released the gun from the sergeant's grip.

"You made this so much easier with your pistol," Alex grinned, placing his hands to the chin of the sergeant. Alex twisted around, pulling his arms up and down, while tendrils from his back protruded and stabbed into the sergeant. AS the sergeant's head was ripped from his neck, his body was being cocooned in a black mass, than absorbed into Alex's own body.

"Now I have you McMullen," Alex said. He concentrated hard on the sight of the Sergeant, and his skin tingled. The black tendrils moved under his skin, changing its pigmentation, and his bone structure. Though it took great effort, Alex no looked like the Sergeant, and could stroll to McMullen's building with ease.

"Sergeant Archon, why are you not on patrol?" asked the guard at the door. Alex pulled up the Sergeant's memories, looking for anything of use.

"Shift change in three minutes sir, I need to debrief those who will be taking my LZ," Alex answered.

"And what of your squad Sergeant? Why are they not with you?" the guard continued.

"I sent them home, they worked hard and well. We swept the LZ, and found a trace of ZUES. Well, they did sir," Alex persisted, hoping he could pass easily.

"Is that so?" the guard asked, rustling from his perch. He and Alex met eyes, and stared down for a brief minute.

_Just let me pass, it will be so much easier. Just let me go, I don't want to kill you, _Alex thought to himself. Though he didn't want too, he was ready, with his fist clenched and power coursing into his right arm.

"Ah I'm just messing Archon, go on in. McMullen wants you to go up to his office as well, something about the Redlight Virus?"

_Redlight virus, what the hell is that? _Alex asked himself, searching the sergeant's memories and finding no trace of it. Alex passed by easily, and found his way to McMullen's office easily. Staying in his military persona, he knocked before entering.

"Sergeant Archon, please, come in and sit down. Close the door behind you," McMullen said politely. Alex closed the door behind him, and sat before the very man he was here to kill.

McMullen couldn't be a day over thirty-five by how he looked, yet he ran a multi-million dollar company. He had to have built it from the ground up, and did a lot of lab work by himself, by the calluses upon his hands. His hair was greying at the roots, but not from age, more of a stress induced change. His suit, though ruffled, showed his class, yet the dust upon his collar showed his true work. McMullen was no desk jock, he worked in the lab, with his hands. He did the hard work, no CEO would do, _should do._

"You're not GENTEK CEO are you Mr. McMullen," Alex stated. Shocked by the question, McMullen looked up with a grin upon his face.

"And what would give you that notion son?" McMullen asked. McMullen stood from his chair and walked to the nearby window.

"The way you walk, look, even talk shows it sir. You're a lab tech, paid to be a scapegoat. You're calluses show me that, as well as the dust upon your collar," Alex responded standing up, and walking behind McMullen.

"I guess you're on our payroll for good reason Sergeant. But that's not why I brought you up here. Do you know of the virus spreading across New York City?" McMullen asked. He turned to face Alex, who nodded in response.

"We're working on an advanced gene, called Whitelight. I can't let you know much, but I can tell you, it will _knock_ Redlight out of the park. The properties of Whitelight are 1000% more potent, and require less resources. It's a miracle truly," McMullen explained.

"It will now?" Alex asked, transforming back into himself, and wrapping his arms around McMullen's torso, linking them together.

"MERCER! No, listen to me! You don't understand!" McMullen began to scream. Before anyone could grasp what happened, Alex snapped McMullen's back, and consumed him quickly, before transforming into McMullen himself.

"Oh I will," Alex said to himself, coursing through McMullen's memories for anything about Whitelight.


End file.
